Wales cautious over Eastwood

Last updated at 11:58 05 April 2007

Southend striker Freddy Eastwood's hopes of becoming a Wales international will probably not see him promoted straight into the senior squad.

The FA of Wales are cautious over whether national boss John Toshack will bring the former West Ham trainee straight into the team to play the Czech Republic in a Euro 2008 qualifier in Cardiff on June 2.

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The FAW were alerted recently by Eastwood's London-based agent Neil Fewings to the possibility that the Epsom-born striker qualifying for Wales through the birthplace of his grandfather.

The FAW have acquired the necessary paperwork which confirms Eastwood's granddad was born in Llanelli, making the 23 year-old eligible to play for Wales.

But an FAW spokesman said: "There must be some caution here about bringing him straight into the squad.

"John Toshack has a stable squad and would obviously want to play fair with the current players."

Toshack is currently back at his San Sebastian base in Spain, but could watch Eastwood on TV tomorrow when he plays in Southend's local derby with Colchester.

The Wales boss has frequently expressed his worries at not having enough strikers to chose from, and that allowed Wycombe's Jermaine Easter a recent call-up, with limited success.

The loss of Robert Earnshaw has been a big blow of late, but the Norwich striker is back in training after a groin injury and expects to be playing again before the end of the month.

He should be fit to join up with the Wales squad for a friendly at Wrexham against New Zealand on May 26, a warm-up match for the clash with the Czechs.

Eastwood told the Western Mail: "Of course I am English, there is no doubt about that, but one side of my ancestry is Welsh.

"This whole thing came about a few months ago when my agent asked me whether I had any Welsh links.

"We started doing some digging into it and I confirmed that I do have strong Welsh ancestry, something I'm very proud of and we worked hard to produce the relevant documents.

"It's down to Mr Toshack, but I'm really excited by the prospect of potentially playing for Wales."

Eastwood could be involved in the friendly with New Zealand at Wrexham on May 26, but it is uncertain whether Toshack would then take the major step of plunging him into the Czech game.

The FAW spokesman said: "We have confirmed that Freddy Eastwood is eligible to play for Wales. The paperwork has been cleared, but we are being a little cautious about what happens next, it is very much up to John Toshack."